We encourage all our children to read each day to develop their independent reading and comprehension skills. Reading is taught in a number of ways. Our younger pupils read to an adult regularly to develop their ability to recognise common words, breakup unknown words into segments and begin to understand the texts that they are reading. Children in our Reception Class experience books in a range of contexts, listen to stories, retell stories using pictures, role play and puppets. They begin to recognise letter sounds and common words.

As children move through the school, they take part in ‘guided reading’ where the teacher, or a teaching assistant, works with a small group of children who are reading at a similar level. Using focused reading and comprehension objectives, these sessions help the group progress to read more challenging texts, discussing what they have read. Guided reading continues throughout the school. Our more independent and older children engage in focussed comprehension activities to prepare them for end of Year 2 Sat Tests. They learn the skills of inference and deduction, thinking about texts from both the viewpoint of the reader and the author.

Phonics skills are an important part of our teaching. In EYFS and KS1 all the children take part in a phonics phase group each morning. This ensures that children learn the skills needed to both read and spell. If any children require further individual phonics support further up the school individual interventions are designed for them.

Writing

Children develop their writing skills in their literacy lessons and have opportunities to write for a range of purposes in across the whole curriculum. Children write in a range of contexts such as letter writing, emails, reports, persuasive texts and fiction writing. Our themed curriculum provides many opportunities for children to develop their writing skills in meaningful contexts. Written work across all areas is completed in one ‘writing book’ as we believe that this encourages the children to use their learned skills accurately in all areas. Children in EYFS develop early mark marking and writing skills in a range of adult led play activities. As they move through the year, they develop their early writing skills by learning letter formations and writing familiar words and short sentences.